I log into Habbo Hotel and immediately grimace at the thought of what I am about to witness. I move my cursor, open my Itunes, play some Eels because that will be the only thing that will make playing Habbo Hotel bearable. Over the course of my two quarters studying Habbo I have decided that it may be my least favorite place in the world, I enjoy going to the dentist much more than I enjoy going to Habbo. At least my dentist offers a bit of stimulating conversation instead of “ will you be my boyfriend” and “wanna bobba.” With that in mind I would like to discuss Identity in Habbo Hotel.
In the avatar creation process, just like any virtual world you are able to customize the look of your toon. In Habbo everybody is the same shape, everybody resembles Lego people. What you are able to customize is the cloths you wear, your hair, skin tone and accessories. Only basic options are free, you have to purchase Habbo Coins in order to buy the bling bling. I believe that it is hard to really match your avatar with your real life self, first off I have a much better butt than my Habbo character. Second off, the options seem very limited. There is only a hand full of styles to choose from, and in my opinion most Habbos look similar.
In my experience it really did not matter what your Habbo was wearing, you essentially were treated the same. I felt as if all Habbo's were the same. Little tween robots whose only goal is to score with a lego brick looking person of the opposite sex. I will touch more on the tween lego sex in my sexuality post. The way to gain an identity in habbo is to do one of two things. First you can spend tons of money to buy furni, which is virtual furniture in which you can use to decorate your domicile as you please. Secondly you can join a gang.
I was unaware of how organized these gangs were! As my naive Habbo stumbled into a room called Habbo Bloodz, my jaw dropped at what I saw. Every male in the room was in red, and wearing a red bandana. Racial slurs were being shouted left and right and many of the girls were fine with the sexist remarks made towards them. I was soon spotted as my tall black top hat was not the social norm for their little habbo club, they soon started threatening me. I being the mature adult on Habbo, decided that I would start dropping some mad knowledge on their habbo behinds and I participated in the shouting match.
After spending too long in Habbo I realize that you really lose all sorts of identity in Habbo. Unless you are part of a gang, you do not have a name. Nobody cares about the name of your avatar, all they care about is your age, weather your male or female, and if you are single. People are expendable in Habbo. Feelings are ignored, as relationships are replaceable. This is a breeding ground for tween internet relationships and cyber sex. If you get dumped by your virtual partner, you can find someone new instantly. The individual is not important in Habbo. This raises me to ask this question... Habbo is a world that is directed towards tweens, with the individual not being valued and people being expendable, how do you feel this effects tweens in their social lives outside of Habbo Hotel?
I think Habbo Hotel is the Mecca for teaching teenagers to be rude, raging, and unconcerned with anyone’s feelings, and of course babbo-ing fiends. With my own horrific experiences in Habbo world, every one I’ve encountered is looking to babbo me, and any/all the girls next to me. One avatar asked for all the single girls to line up in front of his avatar, and he literally said yes or no to the female avatars he found unattractive. I may be mistaken here, but don’t we all look like stumpy lego people who are all related?!
ReplyDeleteWhile this deals with sexuality, I think it also deals with your question of whether or not this V-world is enforcing the idea that people are expendable. If I were a teenager in Habbo Hotel, looking to make some on-line pals, that’s what I’d do. I’d ask how they were doing, instead of their asl or if they’re “feeling naughty”. I think it’s affecting teens in very negative ways. They’re becoming desensitized with what will or won’t hurt someone’s feelings. In virtual worlds the safety of hiding behind an avatar, and being hundreds to miles away, talking to strangers, makes Habbo users forget that behind these boxy avs are real people.
I think Habbo is teaching teens that being rude and disrespectful to others is okay, and there isn't any repercussions for their actions. The teens using Habbo Hotel or any other virtual world think what they say to the other users won't effect them and rejection won't hurt their feelings, but many dont realize that there are people behind the screen and it can cause them to react in drastic ways. I feel the virtual worlds puts a toll on teens social skills, I'm sure they begin talking as they would if they were playing on the internet talknig to a random stranger. These virtual worlds has a negative effect on teens these days and it is not doing anthing postive for our society.
ReplyDelete